#Donald Campbell

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A patent examiner's sloped desk with the tall clerk's chair pushed back at an angle, a fountain pen laid across an open application folder, as if its occupant just stood up struck by an idea

Thought Experiments Breed: Einstein's Method as Blind Variation

Campbell's blind variation and Popper's theories that die in our stead describe an evolutionary epistemology. Einstein's own documented gedanken — cheap to generate, brutally selected — is its best specimen.

By Brecht Corbeel · September 1, 2026 · 10 min read

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